During his second inaugural address Monday afternoon, President Barack Obama said, "We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal not just in the eyes of God but also in our own." We aren't true to our creed. Let's admit it. None of us can credibly argue that a child born into direst poverty would have reason to believe she's got as good a shot as any to succeed.

Rags to riches stories are possible, but if poverty means anything, it means a harder time just surviving. Individuals who have a harder time won't necessarily stay behind, but populations that have a harder time will falter because everybody can't be above average. The average person is just that, and hunger, poor schools, inadequate housing and violent neighborhoods diminish her chance at success.

I found that mention of poverty in the president's speech heavy on the mythology and absent any plan. But Tavis Smiley, who spoke at Dillard University Monday night, considered it and two other references Obama made to the poor a reason to be hopeful. Smiley, a PBS and public radio talk-show host, shared the stage with Cornel West, a professor at Union Theological Seminary. The two are traveling the country, demanding that we pay attention to the economic misery afflicting so many of us. They spoke to New Orleans the day the country's first black president gave his second inaugural address and the day the country commemorated the birth of the civil rights giant who made Obama's election possible.

Tavis Smiley interviews presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in February 2008 for the State of the Black Union. Smiley criticized then-candidate Barack Obama for his absence.Michael DeMocker / NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

"The real Martin King would not stand for this country rendering poor people invisible," Smiley said. King was assassinated as he was planning what he called a poor people's campaign. West noted how remarkable it would have been if King had successfully rallied "indigenous people from the reservations, brown people from the barrios, white people from Appalachia" along with rural and urban black people and brought their concerns to Washington.

We shouldn't be surprised when Washington gives short shrift to the poor, Smiley said. In the four debates featuring last year's presidential and vice-presidential candidates, how to address poverty didn't come up, he said.

Before Obama's first presidential campaign caught fire, Smiley was one of black America's most well-respected voices. He frequently contributed to the Tom Joyner Morning Show, which claims 8 million daily listeners, and he hosted an annual colloquium called the State of the Black Union.

But then Obama -- who said he'd be campaigning elsewhere -- declined Smiley's invitation to the 2008 State of the Black Union held here in New Orleans. Smiley tried to get black America worked up over the perceived slight. He rebuffed Obama's offer to send his wife, Michelle, as a proxy, and just like that, black America's love affair with Smiley was through. Soon he was off Joyner's radio show and, as he acknowledged Monday night, persona non grata in black America. He's not one of the president's haters, he said. He just doesn't want black people to hold Obama to a lower standard than everybody else.

"We are catching the most hell, black folks. We are the president's most loyal constituency. We have the right to hold him accountable." If something dramatic doesn't happen -- and fast -- Smiley said, by the time Obama's out of office, black people will have lost ground.

"Some times you got to fight with your friends." But Smiley characterizing him and the president as friends is surely overstating things.

It's hard to counter West's argument that Obama has ignored the poor, but he has seemed more upset that Obama has ignored him. West found it "very strange," he said during a 2011 interview with truthdig.org, that after he campaigned for Obama he couldn't get tickets to the 2009 inauguration, but the man handling his bags at a hotel had one. What a strange expression of envy from somebody lobbying for the poor.

The president was sworn in Monday with King's bible. Martin Luther King III said his family considered it "an extraordinary honor," but Smiley and West disapprove. "You've got to be real careful about putting your hand on King's bible lest your hand get singed," Smiley said. "Because King had a message that was on fire."

If Obama hasn't been the second coming of King, most of America will forgive him that shortcoming. No president will look good compared to a prophet. But every president - this one especially - should give more to the poor than lip service.